Piece by Piece

And all of your words fall flat

Piece by Piece

And all of your words fall flat

"And all of your words fall flat

I made something of myself and now you wanna come back

But your love, it isn't free, it has to be earned

Back then I didn't have anything you needed so I was worthless"

"Okay, everybody!" Cory Matthews called as he wrote FORGIVENESS onto the blackboard. "Originally, I had planned on doing this lesson much later in the school year. But because some people keep interrupting my lessons because of their fighting, we will do this now!" His students stared at him in disbelief. "That's right! You guys made me change the curriculum! I hope you're happy!"

"What did we do?" Maya asked, confused by the sudden turn of events.

"Oh, you know what you did." Cory glared at Farkle, Lucas and Zay. "Anyway, all through history, countries go to war. That's what we normally study in here. But today, we're going to talk about peace and forgiveness and how we get there." He grinned at his students proudly. "Every once in a while, I come up with a good idea."

"What could it possibly be that I haven't already thought of?" Farkle inquired sounding very self-assured.

"Farkle, I forgive you," Cory said.

"What did I do?" Farkle asked, his eyes wide.

Zay turned to Farkle as well. "I forgive you too," he chimed in.

"What did I do?!" Farkle exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Oh, you know what you do." Zay glared at the boy.

"I feel better now that I've forgiven you," Cory stated. "How do you feel?"

"I'm sorry for every time I've hurt you! What did I do?!" Farkle was beside himself meaning that Cory had reached his goal.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to begin the forgiveness project. Our history isn't just about what we've done. How we grow comes from the repair of what we've done and how we forgive what was done to us," Cory explained.

"Hmm," Riley mused. "We're in. What do we do?"

"Everyone take out a piece of paper. So, this isn't your laptop or your cell phone: you've got unlimited characters here, as many words as you want." Cory walked through the class and handed everyone a red envelope. "The impact will last longer than six seconds. And I guarantee you, it's never going to disappear. So, pick up a pen. Express feelings. This is one of the most important things you're ever going to do. You're about to forgive someone."

"What's this got to do with history, Matthews?" Maya asked.

"It gives you a chance to change it," Cory said simply.

"Like when I forgave Auggie for biting the face off my Barry the Bear-Bear," Riley said. This started a discussion about whether or not Riley had actually forgiven her little brother – spoiler alert, she hadn't.

Soon, everyone but Maya started writing their letter. "Maya, no one in your life you want to forgive?" Cory inquired.

"No," Maya said firmly.

"Don't you think now would be a good time?" Lucas asked and Maya just shot the boy a glare.

"You and your mom are in a good place. You're strong, Maya. Don't you want to forgive him one day? Why not now?" Riley chimed in. Maya just laughed as she started to write. Riley chuckled along with her until Maya handed her a note. The brunette opened it and started to read it out loud: "'Riley, butt out. I am serious. Butt your butt out.'" She turned to Maya. "I forgive you."